


When It Really Matters

by eringiles



Category: Sirens (UK)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Major Character Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:55:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24946465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eringiles/pseuds/eringiles
Summary: Number one – Ash was late. Something that happened on occasion, but usually was followed by an apology bacon buttie, cup of tea and some sordid story.Number two – A doctor was calling from a hospital on Ash’s phone. That either meant that Ash had suddenly bagged a Doctor, which seemed unlikely, or something had happened to Ash.Number three – the f***er had made Stuart his in case of emergency contact.
Kudos: 21





	When It Really Matters

‘Look, if the reason you’re late is because you’re trying to shag everything within a three-mile radius, you can explain to Woodvine.’

‘Hello, sorry, this isn’t Ashley. Who am I speaking to?’

Stuart paused, anger seeping out of him slightly at the fact Ashley was late, leaving him to re-stock the rig on his own and cover for his sorry ginger arse. Confusion started to seep in instead. And a little bit of dread.

‘Stuart. Sorry, who is this?’

‘My name is Chris, I’m a Doctor at St. Luke’s Hospital.’

‘Sorry, what?’

Stuart realised he was apologising a lot, but he was trying to process several things at once.

Number one – Ash was late. Something that happened on occasion, but usually was followed by an apology bacon buttie, cup of tea and some sordid story.

Number two – A doctor was calling from a hospital on Ash’s phone. That either meant that Ash had suddenly bagged a Doctor, which seemed unlikely, or something had happened to Ash.

Number three – the fucker had made Stuart his in case of emergency contact.

‘You’re down as Ashley’s emergency contact, Stuart, so I wanted to call and let you know that Ashley has been in an accident.’

‘Accident? What kind of accident?’

* * *

‘You absolute fucker.’

It wasn’t exactly what he’d planned to say to Ash when he first saw him in A&E. He’d definitely been planning to say something more comforting. But now he was stood at the foot of Ash’s bed taking in the sorry state he was in. Wires attached to his chest, dried blood all over his face, left leg in an inflatable splint and neck brace on. _Fuck._

‘You must be Stuart.’ Stuart resisted the urge to look pointedly down at the name on his fleece.

‘We’re just waiting on the results of his x-rays before we remove the collar. He’s semi-conscious now and knows who he is, but he can’t remember the accident. His other injuries…’

Stuart let the words wash over him as he continued to watch the steady rise and fall of Ash’s chest as he remembered the conversation they’d had months ago when Stuart was agonising over who to add as his ICE contact to his phone.

_It’s who you want by your side holding your hand when it really matters._

‘Thanks,’ Stuart said absently when the doctor was done talking. He moved into the cubicle and up the side of the bed, trying to process. Ashley’s left hand was covered in dried blood and his forearm had some serious road rash, but it didn’t stop Stuart putting his hand over Ashley’s and squeezing, before leaning over the railings to look down at him.

Stuart was somewhat surprised to feel Ashley’s fingers moving underneath his own, trying to hold onto Stuart’s hand. He glanced down at their hands, shifting his so Ashley could curl his fingers round Stuart’s.

Stuart looked up to find half lidded eyes trying to look towards him, hindered slightly by the fact his head was sandwiched between two blocks and his neck was in a brace. Stuart leant further over the railings so Ashley didn’t have to strain to see him.

‘Just been told you remember your name, which I’m not happy about, because I came up with some great new names on the way over that I was going to try and convince you were yours.’

‘Like what?’ Ashley’s speech was slow, either from drugs or pain, or concussion, or more than likely a combination of all three.

‘Ben Dover was definitely out in the lead. Although, I did also quite like Jock Strap. Thought you might go for that one more with it being a Scottish name.’

Ashley was smiling, chuckling slightly and then immediately stopping when it clearly hurt.

‘I’ll save the rest for later.’ Stuart smiled and looked away as the heart monitor gave a slightly louder beep.

‘So, you trust me more than anyone in the world?’

‘What?’

Stuart realised too late that it maybe wasn’t fair to be bringing this up now. Ashley was in an inordinate amount of pain and severally concussed.

‘Nothing. Don’t worry about it, mate.’

Stuart squeezed Ash’s hand again, watching as Ash’s eyes drooped and Stuart hoped he wouldn’t remember this.

‘Stu?’

‘Yes, mate?’

‘What happened?’

‘Car hit you.’

‘Fuck.’ There was a pause. ‘Don’t remember.’

‘That’s alright. You’ll be alright, though, yeah.’

‘Yeah.’ Ashley sniffed, and Stuart could see tears gathering at the corners of Ashley’s eyes. He squeezed Ashley’s hand again and without thinking he reached out to wipe the tears from Ashley’s cheeks.

‘Good news,’ a voice came from behind Stuart and he turned to see the doctor back. ‘You’ve not fractured anything in your neck or head, which means we can take this off,’ he said reaching for the collar and blocks and relieving Ash of it.

Ashley was made to turn his neck left and right and when the doctor was happy, the bed was moved so Ashley was no longer lying flat. At some point Stuart had let go of Ashley’s hand, so he stood awkwardly beside the bed, folding his arms. He was so used to just walking into A&E, dropping off a patient and then turning round and walking out again. He’d never stayed this long before, and certainly not with someone he knew.

* * *

‘How is he?’

‘What you doin’ here?’

‘Someone needed to come take a statement, and when I heard it was Ash I volunteered. Thought I’d find you here an’ all.’

He must have looked pathetic, because Maxine was rubbing his arm in comfort.

‘Fucker put me as his emergency contact.’ It was out of Stuart’s mouth before he could help it.

‘What?’

‘That’s how I found out. The Doctor called me because I was in his phone as ICE.’

‘And that’s a bad thing, why? You’re his best mate.’ Stuart shrugged. ‘What, you think he’s going to put a one-night stand in his phone and expect them to show up when he ends up under the wheels of a car? He put you in because he trusts you. God knows, why.’

‘Oi.’

‘Now, you going to answer my question? How is he?’

‘He’s pretty out of it. Doesn’t remember what happened, so I don’t know if you’ll get a statement from him now.’

‘I’m not too worried. Got enough eye witnesses that claim driver weren’t looking, came straight round the corner without stopping and ploughed into Ashley.’ Maxine paused, looking over at Ashley in the bed. ‘He’s lucky to be alive.’

Those words felt heavy in the air and it all suddenly felt a little more real. With his uniform on and the familiar smell of a hospital in his nostrils, it had all seemed a little bit like work, but now.

‘You alright?’

Stuart was confused for a moment. ‘Me? Yeah? Why?’

‘Your best mate was run over by a car.’ Maxine paused, waiting for the statement to sink in. ‘Ashley was run over by a car. He almost died.’

‘Fuckin’ hell Maxine, bit heavy handed.’ Stuart protested, eyes flitting back to Ashley to check he was still there. Still breathing.

‘Why don’t you go get yourself some lunch and I’ll sit with him for a bit, yeah?’

‘I threw it back in his face.’

‘What?’

‘He suggested that he could be my emergency contact and I threw it back in his face. Asked you instead.’

‘Well that’s a conversation you’ll need to have with him, i’n’t it.’

* * *

‘Bed or sofa?’

‘Sofa.’ Ash almost immediately answered, hobbling over to the sofa on his crutches and flopping down, trying to tuck his crutches out the way before carefully lifting his leg up onto the sofa.

‘Pizza or Chinese?’

‘Don’t care.’ Ash’s head was already resting on the back of the sofa, his eyes closed. Stuart ordered pizza and raided Ashley’s fridge for a beer for himself, and a diet coke for Ashley before raiding Ash’s DVD collection to find something innocuous to put on in the background.

Ashley sat quietly on the sofa and showed no signs of life until the delivery guy rang the doorbell. Stuart waited until they were 45mins into the film and Ash had taken some painkillers before he asked the question that he’d been trying to find an answer to for the last ten days.

‘So, I’m the person that you trust most in the world?’

‘What?’

Stuart had a moment of déjà vu as he stuffed another slice of pizza in his mouth. He half expected to look down and see a severally concussed and bloody faced Ashley staring back at him. Instead he had an Ashley whose brow was furrowed in pain as he tried to overstretch himself, reaching for the pizza box. Stuart pushed the box towards Ashley.

‘You heard me.’ Stuart said, reaching for his beer. ‘I’m the person who you want by your side when it really matters?’

It took a moment for the penny to drop, but when it did, Ash’s face was a picture. ‘Shit.’

‘Why didn’t you tell me?’

‘You know why.’ Ashley looked embarrassed, and Stuart was somewhat surprised that Ashley hadn’t managed to put two and two together before now.

‘I was right, though.’

‘About what?’

‘That you’d be the person there holding my hand when it mattered.’

Stuart didn’t know what to say to that at first, because Ash was right. He had been the one there holding Ashley’s hand when it mattered – literally.

‘Course I was, mate. You scared the shit out of me when I walked into A&E, although full disclosure, the first thing I did was call you an absolute fucker.’

Ashley laughed. ‘Why?’

‘Because I was mad at you for making me your emergency contact and for not telling me.’ Stuart paused to take a swig of his beer. ‘And I was also mad at myself for not realising that you trusted me that much, and for throwing it back in your face when you suggested you were my emergency contact.’

‘Fuckin’ hell. Anyone would think I almost died seeing as how nice you’re being.’

Stuart looked at Ash incredulously. ‘You did almost die. And that might be why I’m being nice, but fuck it. Ring me.’

‘What? You’re sat right there.’

‘Just phone me, will you.’

Ashley sighed and laboriously got his phone from his pocket, phoning Stuart. It took a moment before Stuart’s phone started ringing, the screen lighting up. Stuart turned it round to face Ashley so he could see that instead of his name on the screen were the letters I.C.E.

‘Is this your fucked-up way of saying sorry?’

Stuart clicked cancel on his phone, not looking at Ashley. ‘I suppose it is, yeah.’

‘Also, does that mean you had the conversation with Maxine about her no longer being your ICE? Because if you wanted to say sorry you could have waited to have that conversation in front of me.’

‘No, she’s still in there, she’s just ICE 2.’

Ash couldn’t help himself from laughing.


End file.
